Protect the poorest and tax the richest more. This is the content of the first debates that took place this Monday, October 27, while the Social Affairs Commission of the National Assembly (finally) begins the examination of the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2026.
In fact, the deputies eliminated article 6 of the text, which was to freeze the CSG scale for substitute income, such as retirement pensions, disability pensions and unemployment insurance benefits.
“A social bomb”
“Combined with the freezing of social benefits also provided for by this PLFSS, and with the freezing of the income tax scale (however rejected in first reading in a public session of the National Assembly, ed.), this article is a true social bomb that will increase the CSG paid by the most modest,” they argue.
The impact study of the measure planned by the Government places the income expected from the freezing of the CSG scale in replacement income at 300 million euros.
“As an example, a household formed by a retiree whose monthly pension, which would be their only income, amounts to 2,700 euros gross, if they exceed the last threshold, would see their contributions increase by 1.7 points, that is, 46 euros per month,” it is indicated in this document annexed to the PLFSS.
Other political groups also supported the removal of article 6 from the Social Security budget. In particular, the rebels, the environmentalists, the democratic and republican left, but also the Liot group and the Union of Rights for the Republic (UDR).
“This effectively amounts to increasing taxes on low-income households, whose incomes are barely keeping up with inflation. Households will also suffer an increase in the CSG even if they do not experience an improvement in their standard of living,” added Corse-du-Sud MP Liot Paul-André Colombani.
“In practice, a retired couple who receives 23,700 euros a year will see their contributions increase by 1,020 euros, a couple with 30,000 euros in retirement will pay 850 euros more and a couple with 44,000 euros in retirement will pay an additional 760 euros. I don’t see how you are going to be able to explain to all these retirees or unemployed people that they are going to have to pay more when you refuse to make them pay. The richest of this country,” criticized the deputy green by Essonne Hendrick Davi.
“To go from one type (of the CSG, editor’s note) to another, the income must have changed for two consecutive years,” however, calmed down the PLFSS rapporteur, the right-wing Republican deputy for Meurthe-Moselle, Thibault Bazin. Considering that the measure would only affect “3% of tax households”, the latter expressed an unfavorable opinion on these modifications to delete Article 6.
Increase in CSG on capital income
But that’s not all. If the Social Affairs Committee, on the one hand, has eliminated the freeze of the CSG scale on replacement income and, therefore, 300 million euros of income, on the other hand it has voted in favor of an increase of 1.4 points of the CSG rate on capital income, providing no less than “2.66 billion euros for the benefit of social security organizations”, according to Jérôme Guedj.
Specifically, the deputies agreed to increase the rate from 9.2 to 10.6% on returns on investment products and assets. Jérôme Guedj considers this increase to be an “alternative resource” to the freezing of the CSG scale, but also to other unpopular measures that the left seeks to eliminate, such as the doubling of medical franchises. “The CSG on assets historically had a higher rate than the CSG on earned income,” he recalled.
As expected, France Insoumise supports such a measure aimed at the rich: “96% of dividends are paid to 1% of the country’s households. When we see this, we understand the failure of Macronist policy,” criticized Louis Boyard, LFI deputy for Vendée.
It remains to be seen whether MPs will also vote in favor of these measures during the PLFSS examination in public session. Let us remember that, as with the finance bill, parliamentarians will study the original copy presented by the government. This, modified by the Social Affairs Committee, is, in a way, just a first warm-up round, indicating the balance of power.
Source: BFM TV
